The Road to Crecy: The English Invasion of France, 1346 - Hardcover

Livingstone, Marilyn; Witzel, Morgen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0582784204 ISBN 13: 9780582784208

Publisher: Routledge, 2004

Synopsis

The Road to Crécy tells the story of the English expedition to France in 1346 which climaxed with the battle of Crécy.  On 26 August 1346 on a low ridge outside the village of Crécy-en-Ponthieu in northwestern France, an English army of perhaps 12,000 men under the command of King Edward III faced a combined French and German force five times their number under Edward's rival King Philip VI. The result, on the part of the French at least, was seen as a foregone conclusion. The English army, largely composed of foot soldiers and tired after days of marching and fighting, would be ridden down and overwhelmed by the armoured knights of France, then universally regarded as the finest fighting men in Europe.

A few hours later, all was over. Thousands of French knights and auxiliary troops lay dead or dying on the slopes of the ridge, shot down as they advanced by English and Welsh archers. King Philip, wounded twice by enemy arrows, had fled the field. The events of those few hours had changed the course of the Hundred Years War, the balance of military power in Western Europe, and the nature of warfare itself.

About this title

Review:

'An excellent read...For the general reader this book has great drama...For the Historian there is careful research and diligent reconstruction well presented. For the soldiers there are issues of leadership, engineering and logistics to contemplate. Something for everyone.'

The British Army Review

About the Author:

Marilyn Livingstone has a PhD from The Queen's University of Belfast where her thesis was an analysis of Edward III's Nonae tax of 1340-41. She is a regular reviewer for academic journals and the author of several articles, the newest of which is a study of the environmental conditions England in the 1340s.

Morgen Witzel is a Fellow of the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, UK. A writer, lecturer and consultant on business and management, especially on the history of management, he is the author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles for the academic and popular press.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0582784204
• ISBN 13: 9780582784208
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384